A Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Model for Municipal Waste Treatment Systems Evaluation including Energy Recovery

Robert Giel and Artur Kierzkowski
Additional contact information
Robert Giel: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-371 Wroclaw, Poland
Artur Kierzkowski: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-371 Wroclaw, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: One of the recent problems on waste sorting systems is their performance evaluation for proper decision making and management. For this purpose, multi-criteria methods can be used to evaluate the sorting system from both operational and financial perspectives. According to a recent literature review, there are no solutions for evaluating waste sorting systems that take into account: sorting point utilisation, sorting efficiency, waste stream irregularity, and technical system availability. In addition, the problem of data uncertainty and the need to use expert judgements indicate the need for the implementation of methods adjusted to the qualitative and quantitative assessment, such as the fuzzy approach. Following this, in order to overcome the presented limitations, the authors introduced the new assessment method for waste sorting systems based on multi-criteria model implementation and fuzzy theory use. Therefore, the developed model was based on a hierarchical fuzzy logic model for which appropriate membership function parameters and inference rules were defined. The specificity of the chosen assessment criteria and their justification was provided. The model has been implemented to evaluate one of the waste sorting plants in Wroclaw, Poland. Tests have been conducted for seven different configurations of waste sorting lines (with variable input parameters). The study focuses on analysing the amount of selected waste at each station in relation to the total stream size of each fraction. Efficiency was measured by the mass of the collected waste and the number of pieces of waste in each fraction. Based on the obtained results, estimations of particular parameters of the model were made, and the results were presented and commented on. It was shown that there is a significant relationship between the level of system evaluation and sorting efficiency and an inverse relationship with the level of RDF obtained. The analysis was based on Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient estimation and linear regression implementation.

Keywords: waste management; waste sorting; sorting line; system evaluation; multi-criteria evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/31/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/31/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2021:i:1:p:31-:d:707957

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().